Notes / Commercial Description:
The once strongest beer in the world is back! Brewed only once a year on December 6. Samichlaus is aged for 10 months before bottling. This beer is perhaps the rarest in the world. Samichlaus may be aged for many years to come. Older vintages become more complex with a creamy warming finish. Serve with hardy robust dishes and desserts, particulary with chocolates, or as an after dinner drink by itself. Brewed under the exclusive licence of Feldschlösschen-Hürlimann-Holding, Switzerland.

Oh my I hope samiclaus brings me alot more of this in his bag. Absolutely marvelous. My kind of beer when I'm needing some dessert. Raisins plums candy store stuff. Goes down so easy.. could be trouble with more than 2 of these. Gonna remember this one. Nice copper color...very little head.. sticky lace. Only let back I can taste is it is very darn sweet.

Yes! This is it! The classic, legendary Samichlaus! It is almost like a barley wine but not quite. It is something more than that, or definitely it is something different.
It is boozy. It is malty. It is sweet. And what a complexity of sweetness! Experience grapes, raisin, toffee, coffee, caramel and whatever else you like, coming up as you drink, but altogether quite fruity sweetness, as if you were chewing on fresh sherry pipe tobacco.
You feel the 14% and you don't. You get overwhelmed by it as you drink, but not only by the alcohol content. The taste is that intensive. Quite similar to Fuller's Golden Pride but 100x that intensive. And strong.
Might not be the most unique of beers but it is a Joker. One that you can pull and can be sure to win, it's a bullseye, a bingo, one that can't fail. But don't drink it as a beer, drink and appreciate it for what it is.

This was poured into a pilsener glass. The appearance was a soft ruddy brown color with a light transparency about it. Carbonation could be seen rising at a nice pace bouncing off of some floaties. A one finger white foamy head started and dissipated fairly quickly. The smell had a bready aroma full of robust sweetened raisins and plums. Brown sugar lightly grazes the sides of the aroma. The taste was mainly sweet through all of the previously mentioned flavors. Light nuttiness rounds out the flavor nicely. Sticky sweet dark fruity and bready aftertaste leads into a sticky finish. On the palate, this one sat about a light to medium in body with a slight sessionability about it. Carbonation feels nice and low with a sticky bready clinginess sliding over my tongue. Overall, what’s not to love in this doppelbock? An absolutely awesome favorite around the Winter holidays.

Nice chestnut brown color with a fingernail of beige just barely present. The nose is like an assault of rich, sweet dark malt and alcohol. The taste is a massive dose of sweet dark malt including chestnuts and caramel. The mouth is sticky, chewy, and warm with alcohol.

Got a bottle from Top Hops, NYC. Pour into a Duvel tulip glass. Drank on what was probably the last cold day in DC this season.
Really sweet, good malt back. Taste of dark fruit, liquorice, and really herbal. Also quite boozy too.
Quite syrupy and viscous.

remember when Samichlaus was the strongest beer available. I was an early US Navy retiree & a transfer sophomore at Pitt, living at the Centre Plaza Apartments, further from campus than I liked, but close to the Sharp Edge Beer Emporium in (ahem) Shadyside, really, Slibberty. Friday nights, I would take a seat at the left end of the bar, just inside the door, now reconfigured, and be joined by two other regulars. We would routinely split the bigger, more expensive bottles just so that we could say that we tried that beer. Samiclhlaus night saw me nearly freeze to death on the way home! Let us see if I fare any better today.

From the bottle: "The World's Most Extraordinary Beverage"; "Bottled in 2014"; "Brewed only once a year on December 6, Samichlaus is aged for 10 months before bottling. This specialty is perhaps the rarest in the world. Samichlaus may be aged for many years to come. Older vintages become more complex with a creamy warming finish."

I Pop!ped the cap & gently decanted just enough to be able to see what was going on. A vigorous in-glass swirl raised a brief finger of foamy, soapy, tawny head that could not wait to fall away to wisps. Color was Brown to Dark Brown (SRM = > 22, < 27) with NE-quality clarity & deep amber highlights. Nose was actually rather sherry-like with notes of leather, caramel, roasted chestnuts & a fusel alcohol burn that ran up into my sinus cavity & hid! Ahhhh! It burns! Mouthfeel was medium, less big than the earlier, more recent Helles, suggesting that it will thin out over time. I let it simply play over my tongue, warming as it did so. This was clearly a big, malt-driven beer with all of the sweetness that I was getting. Beyond the caramelized sugar, I also tasted leather, coconut, dried dark fruits, such as prunes & raisins as well as cherries and an amorphous nuttiness that would come and go. Phew! This will take the chill off. It really had a breadiness that made me think of B&M Brown Bread, especially the one with raisins. Have you ever had bread from a CAN? It's REALLY good, and with a schmear of cream cheese, it is even better. I like to keep a CAN on-hand just to freak out guests since most people are unfamiliar with it. This beer was that bread, liquefied. Once again, it hearkens back to my ancestral monks, brewing this beer to hold them over from pre-sunrise to post-sunset during their Lenten fast. Clearly, I am not bound by their sanctity & vows, but I can understand how this would work. Heck, I had to take a lay-down following Samichlaus Helles earlier! Perhaps I should work on an illuminated text ... In the interim, finish was hot, dry & a clear indication that patience is key with this beer. I have no doubt that years of aging will do wonders to smooth out this bad boy. See you then!